First Tesla Crash In China

Yup, it was bound to happen, but we didn't expect it to be so soon. Automology's writer, MAC, reports...

So, why is this an important headline? Well, it probably wouldn’t be if it was not for the fact that Tesla Motors just love being so high profile, in the news and in your face. The simple fact is that the crash probably has nothing to do with the car nor the electric drivetrain, and all to do with the inability of the driver to enact a simple three-point turn, but that doesn’t mean the news is any less sensational. 

To date, the high profile news-loving CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, has not hidden his desire to penetrate into China where everybody will tell you the future of car sales will be. Tesla is not having an easy-ride, though; the company is being sued left, right and centre in China where it has impatient customers smashing windows in their stores as the hyperbole around the all-electric vehicle launch in the territory has not been matched by its availability.

So, early this week in the Chaoyang suburb of Beijing, a brand new Tesla Model S, painted in a colour reminiscent of fire brigade red, catapulted across a road, ricocheted off a lamp post and came gently to rest against a parked bus. The impact was strong enough to trigger the airbags in the US$104,000 version of the Californian super sedan. The two occupants in the car at the time were taken to hospital but released later due to lack of life threatening injuries (I presume). One good thing - at least the car didn’t catch fire.

I do feel sorry for Tesla who has staked so much of their future on making it in the Chinese market and yet appears to be under siege there at present. Perhaps I should send Mr Musk a copy of an earlier article that graced this blog - Toyota's Life After The BRICs. Maybe then he would realise that there is more than just China outside of the USA.

image: carnewschina.com